Yahoo Reports More Layoffs, Q4 Revenue

Prior to releasing their Q4 results, Yahoo announced it is laying off another 1 percent of its workforce — approximately 135 of its 13,600 employees. Meanwhile, Google announced it will hire an additional 6,000 people in 2011.

“With the hiring plans, Google will have more than 30,000 employees by the start of 2012, a workforce still significantly smaller than Silicon Valley giants like Intel, Cisco Systems and Hewlett-Packard, but more than double the size of rivals like Yahoo, and more than six times the size of the company that has become its most formidable competitor — Facebook,” the San Jose Mercury News reported.

The different directions each of these search giants are moving reflects the state of the tech market right now. A number of the older companies seem to be falling back, while the newer ones are shooting forward.

“Google is also buying other companies that bring new employees with them. “The surge reflects Google’s ambitious plans to become a powerful force in areas of the Internet far beyond its traditional sweet spot of search, with Google rapidly expanding the number of engineers working on initiatives including its Android smartphone and tablet operating system, its maps and location-based services that could deliver advertising to users based on where they are, and in products around its Chrome browser and operating system,” the Mercury News reported.

“Yahoo’s malaise has intensified the pressure on CEO Carol Bartz to lower expenses in an effort to boost earnings and lift the company’s stock price, which dipped slightly last year while most of the market climbed,” the Associated Press noted.